"A rising ___ lifts all boats"

The answer to “"A rising ___ lifts all boats"” in the USA Today crossword is TIDE — a 4-letter word. It most recently appeared in the USA Today crossword on August 21, 2026, a Friday puzzle, at 56-Down. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“"A rising ___ lifts all boats"” answer

TIDE (4 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is TIDE.

What does TIDE mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of TIDE is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

When else has “"A rising ___ lifts all boats"” appeared?

USA Today reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

August 21, 2026 (most recent) → TIDE. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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